Do The Right Thing

It was so good to be back at The Phoenix after the traditional August drought. I met up with Sarah, Jack, Neal, and Simon beforehand and we waited patiently for the doors to open. Simon is moving to Birmingham on Saturday, so it was nice to see him before he abandons us.

I went to the first Do The Right Thing back in April which was a blast. DTRT! {dtrt} (that will never catch on) is a podcasted panel show with team captains Michael Legge and Margaret Cabourn-Smith and hosted by Danielle Ward. Each team has a guest, and in the first recording we had TV's Emma Kennedy and Rich Fulcher.

Michael Legge & Rich Fulcher

I've always been a fan of Emma. She has done some great work with Richard Herring in the past and I am currently reading her book "The Tent, The Bucket & Me" which is a very funny read. I've only recently discovered Rich Fulcher, and speaking as a non-Mighty Boosh fan, wasn't expecting much when I first saw him, but he is truly hilarious and his "Tiny Acts Of Rebellion" show was one of my favourites this year.

The point of the show is to give the panel some situations and have them tell us what the right thing to do is. Emma remained unconvinced that sex with animals was actually illegal and pulled out some lovely gruesome stories, leaving the panel wondering if this was a comedy panel show or a horror panel show.

We had an interval where I bid Emma farewell and she and Rich were replaced by Thom Tuck (introduced as Fosters Comedy Award Loser) and Danielle's fellow Dave Gorman sidekick and co-writer of "Gutted", Martin White.

Michael, Thom, Danielle & Margaret

In this show, we mainly learned that Martin is not gay, even though I did clearly hear him use the phrase "Your arse - my head". Anyway, moving on, this is a great little podcast, and if you enjoy a non-topical panel show such as "Would I Lie To You?" you should get downloading these as soon as they are released which will be sometime this Autumn. There is another recording on the 27th, so why not come along?

You can listen to the pilot episode here or get it on iTunes.

Margaret Cabourn-Smith & Martin White

Talking of the 27th, Michael Legge starts 3 nights at The Leicester Square Theatre. It may be the last chance you'll get to see the extremely funny "Curse Sir Walter Raleigh", unless of course, he decides to do some more. I have tickets to the 29th but may well go on the 27th as well before haring it to Oxford Circus in time for Do The Right Thing. See you there!

Ta-ra Tara!

Rich and Yen

A friend and I had a joint birthday barbecue on Saturday and I didn't get home till about midday on Sunday. As soon as I got home it was time to go out again, to see some Edinburgh previews from Rich Fulcher and Michael Legge. I have seen both these shows before, but as Edinburgh approaches it's great to see them taking shape and getting very close to the final show.

Michael's show in particular has really progressed. It seems completely ready to go, and more importantly is very very funny indeed. Curse Sir Walter Raleigh is about his obsession with good manners as well as his obsession with the titular Sir Walter, who he learned about from his dad. Apparently Sir Walter was the only man that could hit a church's plastic drainpipe with a stone and when Michael, at 3, managed it, his dad told him how special he was. As well as being funny, it's also rather touching in places.

Rich Fulcher's Tiny Acts Of Rebellion has changed too, with the addition of his director to the show, who plays his simpering but rebellious assistant. Both Yen, Carl and Neal ended up on stage at one point, and Carl got one of the biggest laughs of the night describing crisps at the focus group as being sexually arousing and salty. 

Rich and Neal

After the show it was Tara and Carl's leaving drinks as they are heading across the water to Ireland. This part of the day lasted a lot longer than I expected, but it was great to see so many of my favourite people in the one place. Spent some time chatting with Michael, Rich, Tara, Carl, Yen, Neal, Simon (x2), Paul Litchfield, who was strangely obsessed with docking. Even Christian Reilly turned up and decided to also discuss docking.

In the morning I was in two minds whether to come to the gig or not as I was feeling so terrible. I had decided I would go, but only have one quick drink with Tara. Naturally that plan went wrong and 8 hours later I was still in the pub.

If you're going to Edinburgh this year I would make both Michael and Rich's shows ones to see. And to quote Michael, "if you don't come I will kill you in the penis"